WASHINGTON: The Chinese government is fully committed to working with the international community to support economic and political stability in East Asia , but would be willing to sacrifice those principles if Taiwan tried to break away from the mainland and create an independent state, according to a leading Chinese foreign affairs analyst.

"Taiwan is a big issue," said Qin Yaqing, the vice president and a professor of international studies at China Foreign Affairs University. "It's big trouble. And it's always there."

While Chinese leaders prefer peaceful means for dealing with the pro-independence course of Taiwan's president, Chen Shui- bian, the potential for a major conflict remains high, Qin told a Washington seminar on China sponsored by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation United States this month.

That is particularly true, he added, if further Taiwanese moves toward independence are backed by US neo-conservatives. They view China as a potential military rival to the United States and have been pushing for greater US arms sales to Taiwan.

"The big question concerns outside powers," said Qin. "If the neo-conservatives in the United States have a very strong voice" inside US policy circles, "that could put pressure on the Chinese political process."

China, he continued, believes that Taiwan's interest in buying sophisticated US weapons is related to its "strong willingness to be independent. On this issue, it's important for China and the United States to look carefully."

Qin spoke as US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was in Beijing last week for high-level talks with President Hu Jintao, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and military chief Jiang Zemin.

While much of their discussions focused on North Korea's nuclear ambitions and the six-way talks convened by China to resolve that crisis, the Chinese delegation made it clear to Rice that their number one concern was Taiwan.

China will "not sit back and watch and do nothing if the Taiwan authorities cling obstinately to their push for Taiwan independence and if foreign forces meddle and support" the island, Jiang told Rice, according to news reports.

Jiang, the former president of China, added that Taiwan is "the most important and the most sensitive key issue in Sino-US relations" and warned that Beijing is "seriously concerned and unhappy with the sale of advanced weapons to Taiwan."

Taiwan's legislature is considering a proposal to buy 18.2 billion dollars worth of new weapons from the United States to counter what they claim is a military build-up by China. The package, which would include anti-missile systems, eight diesel submarines and 12 P3-C anti-submarine aircraft, would be the largest arms sale to Taiwan in over a decade.

The arms deal was made in 2001 after the Bush administration lifted restrictions on high-tech weapons sales to Taiwan. In keeping with that policy, Rice "rebuffed" China's demands to end US arms sales to Taiwan but offered to help in furthering the dialogue between Taipei and Beijing, the 'Washington Post' reported.

In June, a group of Taiwanese legislators visited Washington to discuss the arms deal. During their visit, Wang Jin-Pyung, the president of Taiwan's legislative yuan, met with US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the leading neo-conservative within the Bush administration and a major advocate of selling arms to Taiwan.

The meeting was the highest-level meeting between US defence officials and a Taiwanese leader since the Carter administration ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979.

Chinese officials denounced the meeting and warned that the arms sales could disrupt US-China relations. The Bush administration, however, has been extremely careful in its public statements about Taiwan.

That has irritated neo- conservatives, who believe that the United States should take a more direct role in backing the island state's drive towards independence.

"Taiwan's desirable democratic transformation has an unavoidable implication for US policy on Taiwan - not to tilt against independence but toward it," said William Kristol, the chairman and co-founder of the Project for the New American Century. -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.